A middle-aged adult male wearing a light blue button-up shirt with black-rimmed glasses, indoors in an office or home environment.

11:50

American Estate Planning Series channel icon

American Estate Planning Series 2M views Save

How to write a valid will in under 4 minutes

Name: How to write a valid will in under 4 minutes
Uploaded: 2019-11-01T19:49:25Z
Duration: 11 min 50 s
Description: Paul Rabale has been an estate planning attorney for 30 years. He knows how many people lose sleep over not having a will, so he sets out to show how fast a simple one can be done.

Paul Rabale has been an estate planning attorney for 30 years. He knows how many people lose sleep over not having a will, so he sets out to show how fast a simple one can be done. more

One camp says you should never write a will without a lawyer. Another is set on doing it alone. Either way, he sees the worry: people who "procrastinate and they don't sleep," who get nervous before a long drive because the will still isn't written. This one is "a little exercise, but kind of fun."

A man with glasses in a light blue shirt speaks toward the camera in front of a plain background. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third. — Paul Rabale, an estate planning attorney, sets up his lesson on making a simple will by hand.

The key is that in his state, Louisiana, handwritten wills are allowed. The legal name is holographic wills ("holographic is a mouthful," he admits). Some other states allow them too, and they are "just as valid as the typed up notarized ones," as long as you follow the rules. Where they're not allowed, a will has to be typed and notarized.

His pretend client is a husband named Will Writer, William Will Writer in full. He loves his wife, trusts her, and wants to leave everything to her. They have two grown kids, William Will Writer Jr. and Wilhemina, and if his wife dies first, the kids split it all. Wilhemina "is the responsible one," so she's the backup executor.

Then Paul stands up to write, and he apologizes for the setup. The kids have all moved out, he and his wife bought a smaller home, the pictures are not even hung yet, and there's not one sheet of lined paper in the house. Plain printer paper will have to do.

The date goes at the top, then "I, William Will Writer, declare this to be my last will and testament." He cancels all earlier wills and codicils (a codicil, he explains, is just an amendment). Then comes "the big, big one": all his property to his wife, Wilma Will Writer. If she dies first, the two kids get equal shares, and if a child dies first, that child's share goes to their own children.

Every will should name an executor, so he names Wilma, with Wilhemina as backup. Writing her name out one more time, he says, "I wish my kids didn't have such long, long names." The last line lets the executor act as an independent executor and serve without bond, and then he signs at the bottom: "What a beautiful signature." Start to finish, it takes him under four minutes.

A middle-aged adult male wearing a light blue button-up shirt with black-rimmed glasses, indoors in an office or home environment. The headline runs in white letters across the lower third. — Paul Rabale has been an estate planning attorney for 30 years.

He doesn't want anyone to copy his words as if they fit every family, because the wording is the key and every life is a little different. People with special needs children, forced heirs, tax worries or very exact wishes about who gets what should hire a lawyer. For a simple estate, though, he wants the people losing sleep over this to see how quick and easy it can be.